Siblings Reincarnate as Enemies

Chapter 28 – In which people are not dead?!

Craya’s day could be only described as ‘confusing’.

She woke up and got dressed, only to be informed that she can’t leave her room, because she was suspected of a murder.

A murder of no one else but Golderodi, a maid at the manor, who she had a friendly, but not close relationship with.

They were merely co-workers. Maybe Golderodi was a bit closer to her, because they were of similar age and Craya was naturally a quiet person, so a shy girl felt better around her.

Craya could not understand how it led to her being suspected of murder.

She wasn’t too worried about being punished for the crime she didn’t commit, the law official who visited her to explain the situation informed her that the ‘evidence’ they have against her is very flimsy, and couldn’t be used as proof at the court.

What she was worried about was Her Lady, Saffra.

She was worried that Saffra might have misunderstood the gravity of the situation and do something risky.

Though Saffra was known to be docile, Craya knew that Her Lady had a tendency to put herself forward, as a sacrificial lamb.

If someone were to approach her and use Craya’s situation as leverage…

Craya shuddered just imagining it.

After a law official left, Apric and Tangeri barged into her room, checked if she was okay (she did her best to appear so) and reassured her that they would keep an eye on Saffra.

Then the two friends left, Craya was left alone with her thoughts.

But not for long.

Craya was surprised when Saffra suddenly appeared, accompanied by lady Mimosa and that guy, Citrie, for some reason, which apparently Saffra was also in the dark about.

What more surprisingly, Saffra didn’t appear agitated, rather she was more concerned about Craya herself and perhaps angry at the situation.

Once again, Craya confirmed that there was something different about her lady, something changed starting this week.

That feeling of dissonance continued, as Saffra started to ask questions about the case.

The strangely violent reaction when she heard about Craya’s ancestor (Craya was really relieved that Saffra or her friends didn’t think about her ancestor as a traitor).

And finally the shining glint in her eyes as she asked Mimosa to lead her to the closest secret passage from the murder scene.

It looked like she figured something out.

But what?

She tried to go through all the clues once again, but nothing she came up with was reasonable.

Did someone disguise themselves as Golderodi and strolled the night market?

But why would you do that? The chances of someone seeing and recognizing Golderodi were very small.

…

Craya wanted to think more about it, but there was something more distracting in front of her.

Her Lady was truly different.

Craya noticed it a few days ago, when Saffra asked her to bring her meat and then to make bloody flowers.

It’s not like a person was replaced with a different one, all the little habits, expressions and even the type of food she liked were the same (excluding the salt added to everything, that was the new one).

But if the previous Saffra was passive, this one was very active.

It was as if something broke out from the shell, and that something, hidden inside for all those years, was finally showing its teeth.

Craya didn’t say anything about it, deciding to just observe.

Her two older friends, Apric and Tangeri, who usually liked to talk, were also silent about it, as if there was an unspoken agreement among the three of them to say no word about it.

After a few minutes the group arrived in the empty corner of a rarely used corridor and Mimosa started to move some things to open a secret passage.

It wasn’t one of the secret passages Craya knew about.

Well, it wouldn’t probably be a secret passage if any servant at the manor knew about it, but Craya was informed about some when she became Saffra’s lady-in-waiting.

The function of secret passages was to provide a method of escape for manor’s residents if the manor was attacked.

Some secret passages were only known by the current General, lord Sulfious and the next ruler candidates, Mimosa and Orche.

Maybe it was one of those more secretive ones? It shouldn’t be the top secret one, seeing how easily Mimosa led them there and showed how to open it without a hesitation.

Though, considering Mimosa’s past actions, she probably would do that at Saffra’s request without even thinking about it.

“Let’s go!”

Saffra stepped into the opened passage with those words.

After taking a few steps in, she remarked:

“Mm, someone used it very recently.”

Craya followed Saffra’s gaze and noticed muddy footprints.

The mud was already dry, but considering that the footprints were still well preserved, it appeared they were made recently.

The footprints pointed that someone entered and exited through that passage.

That passage was very close to the murder scene so…

“There is someone ahead.”

Suddenly, Craya heard Mimosa whisper.

Saffra didn’t reply, she just glanced at Citrie, who was walking a step ahead of her, with a gentle smile and gaze saying ‘Do your job!’.

Citrie nodded and then went ahead, disappearing around the corner.

Craya didn’t hear his footsteps.

‘It’s really like a cat…’

When Craya was admiring the accuracy of Saffra’s descriptions.

Mimosa said, this time not whispering:

“Done. We can catch up with them.”

How did Mimosa know it was outside of Craya's understanding, but she followed Saffra.

Around the corner, she saw some boxes, the usage and origin of which she couldn’t fathom, the makeshift camp and two people.

One was Citrie, who was holding someone at knife point, and the other one, the person Citire was holding…

Was Golderodi?

Craya blinked a few times, but no matter how she looked, the girl in front of her looked exactly like Golderodi.

But wasn’t Golderodi murdered?

Why was she here, alive?!

“That’s because we have two people, who look exactly the same.”

Saffra said, as if answering Craya’s thoughts.

Or maybe everyone’s thoughts, because Apric and Tangeri were also staring at the girl with wide eyes.

Well, Mimosa didn’t have much of an expression, so it wasn’t clear if she was surprised or not.

And Citrie was just frowning, less from surprise and more as if something was bothering him.

“Miss Craya, can you help Sir Citrie tie her up, so he doesn't have to stand there like that, and we can have a civilized conversation?”

Craya did just that.

Soon, the group was sitting around the small camp in the secret corridor.

As the opening was wider here, maybe it was some sort of restpost, it wasn't a problem for all seven people to sit down here.

“Now, how do I address you, miss?”

Saffra gently smiled at the girl who looked like Golderodi, but the girl just glared at her and said:

“What do you think you're doing? Why did you attack me?”

“Well, miss, if trespassing on the General’s property wasn’t already a crime, you’re also suspected of a murder.”

“A murder? And do you have any evidence of that?”

The girl looked weirdly confident that she is untouchable.

Even for Craya it was weird. Did that girl have no sense of reality in her head?

You didn’t need evidence to convict someone of a crime if you were a daughter of a supreme ruler!

She saw Saffra massage her temples and overheard her mumbling:

“Does that girl think she lives in a mystery novel and expect me to lay an evidence in front of her…?”

Saffra sighed and then said:

“Fine, I’ll indulge you for a moment, but only because I think my ladies-in-waiting will ask me about it later, so I can give an explanation right now. And also because there is something I don’t understand. May as well return a favor and answer me about it later.

But first, I need to call you and the murdered girl something. You don’t seem to be willing to tell me your name, so how about that? The name Golderodi comes from goldenrod, which is a name of both a type of flower and a spider. So I’ll call the victim, the Flower Golderodi and you, the murderer, the Spider Golderodi.”

Saffra crossed her arms and explained:

“Let’s start with the part I’m a bit less certain about specifics of. Miss Craya told me that Golderodi usually was a nice and friendly person, but sometimes her personality would flip 90 degrees and she would start to insult her ancestor. Then Miss Craya told me that Golderodi visited her around midnight to ask her to go talk with her somewhere. But then Miss Apric and Miss Tangeri told me that they thought that they saw Golderodi at the night market around the same time. That’s when it became obvious we’re dealing with two same looking people here.

Ah, please don’t look at me like that. My ladies-in-waiting have very good eyes, they wouldn’t mistake people. All of them believed that they saw Golderodi, so ‘Golderodi’ had to be in two places. Unless you possess a teleportation ability, which I highly doubt, you wouldn’t be able to pull off being in the two places at the same time.

Then the question became what exactly happened that night. If my assumption is correct, you two were switching places, while working at the manor, for quite some time. Miss Flower Golderodi was the main one, with whom all the workers interacted the most, and you Spider Golderodi appeared only sometimes, to do… some things… one of which was getting in a fight with Miss Craya. I suspect it was to give Miss Craya a ‘motive’ for killing Miss Flower Golderodi? In other words, you were planning that murder for quite some time.

That night, you entered the manor, while Miss Flower Golderodi left, so no one saw the two Golderodies and started to question their sanity, very nice of the two of you. You, Spider Golderodi, went to talk to Miss Craya to make additional evidence to frame her for a murder. It wasn’t really needed, but if someone saw you together and then they found Miss Flower Golderodi dead, they would get suspicious.

Ah, before you ask how I know it was you and not Miss Flower Golderodi. Miss Flower Golderodi was really good with ribbon art. Miss Craya noticed that the ribbon bow you were wearing that night wasn’t that good. And even now, looking at your ribbon bow, I can tell it isn’t that amazing.

Then, you two met again to switch places and you killed Miss Flower Golderodi, wrote the bloody words, and hid in this secret passage. It’s the safest place you could be right now, right? You can’t go outside, because the law officials would be asking about Miss Flower Golderodi and you obviously can’t be at the manor. But law officials, even if they get suspicious, they can’t ask for such sensitive information from the General. In addition, it gives you one more advantage.

You can easily access the manor from here. And you would want that, because you seem to be weirdly obsessed with framing Miss Craya for murder. The evidence right now is obviously not enough to convict her, so you may do… a little haunting? You seem to have a thing for theatrics, with the bloody message and all that. You may even disguise yourself as a ghost and haunt the manor. People may get suspicious, try to dig deeper. Even if Miss Craya isn’t convicted, her reputation would be effectively destroyed.

Oh, when we’re on the topic of framing someone for murder, a word of advice. Don’t leave bloody marks anywhere. Sir Citrie noticed that there were bloody stains on the curtains of the alcove and was able to deduce that the height of the murderer was similar to that of Golderodi. But you see, Miss Craya is a head taller than you, the Golderodies. For a tall lady like her, it’s really weird to crouch only to move the curtains.”

Saffra sighed, as if she finished her explanation.

“Now, with the basic story covered there is something that bothers me. Why would you target Miss Craya? There are easier targets to frame if you need to frame someone for your murder. Why Miss Craya? Why are you so obsessed with her?”

Saffra’s eyes became sharp like daggers.

Her gaze met with the eyes of Spider Golderodi.